ok guys heres my problem. ive got an autometer pro comp water temp gauge that is eletrical hookup, not mechanical. anyways i dont know how many of you have an electrical water temp gauge or if you are familiar with them but anyways here it is. when i got my gauge i also ordered the hose adapter kit from autometer, with the adater all you do is cut your radiator hose in half and stick each end of your cut hose onto the adapter and the autometer water temp sending unit then screws into the adapter. then you connect the wire from the gauge to the sending unit and viola!.....well i did al of this but i couldnt get my little autometer sending unit screwed all the way in to the adapter cause the threads got so tight and i didnt want to keep tightening it and screw up the threads on the adapter. so my gauge does not get a good reading cause the sending unit is not far enough into the adapter to get a good enough water flow over it to get a good and accurate reading. well one of my fellow 7thgen buddies suggested hooking it up to the stock engine coolant temp. sensor on the car. well i did this and it made the gauge work fine but it made the check engine light come on and the car idled like crap. so i couldnt do that. any of you guys got an electrical water temp gauge, if so how do you have it hooked up? any help is very very very appreciated

i dont think it not working with the autometer sending unit has anything to do with it not being screwed in far enough. where your unit is placed, cooler water will flow over it and give you a lower reading. you need to have it in the water jacket where hot water builds up before the thermostat.

well the sending unit gets a temp reading from the water flowing over it, and since mine isnt screwed in to the adapter enough (tightened down its still not in the water flow) it isnt getting barely any water hitting the sensor, so it cannot get a very good reading

yeah but youre getting a reading of the cooler water coming out of the radiator. water would hit that sensor even if it was barely in there. the water will fill the void. i think the sensor is just in a bad spot.

listen here kid......lol. your probably right, i might spend most of tomorrow messing around with it to see if i can get it positioned right

you need to get it out of the radiator hose and into the block.

Yeah but drilling and tapping a 1/2" NPT hole is a real pain. I'm gonna do it anyway on mine but I'm not looking forward to it...

When you hooked it up to the stock sender, did you leave the stock wires in place and piggy back? Or did you just unplug the stock clip and run wires to your autometer gauge?